✦ AUGHTY ✦ The Donkey in the Chapel 28 SISTINE CEILING. MICHELANGELO, SLIGHTLY DRUNK. AUGHTY Imagine: Michelangelo, slightly drunk, climbs up to the ceiling anyway. He paints a donkey taking a dump under a tree. Tell me whether you find this offensive. the ceiling THE WRONG READING. ! ! "A defecating donkey in a holy space is outrageous." This is moralizing the content. The what. Decorum says: certain subjects don't belong in certain places. Decorum, for me, does not apply. THE RIGHT READING. THE ARTIST WAS THERE ✓ THE ARTIST WAS ELSEWHERE ✗ Same subject. Whatever the mood — a donkey, even wildly out of style with the ceiling — is still art when the brush obeys the artist. The offense is not the donkey. The offense is that he wasn't fully there. THE PRINCIPLE. Art is a conscious act — a point of view preserved in time, in any form, on any subject. Consciousness celebrating itself. Craft keeps that trace faithful to the moment. When craft breaks, it usually broke because something outside the artist overrode their liberty. THE OFFICE EQUIVALENT. ? Same shape in the office. A sincere response — even "no" — is a conscious act. The person is present in it. A performative response — going through motions because policy required it — is the trace of what overrode them. The offense isn't the reply. The offense is that they weren't there. Every real work is the trace of a mind fully present. Every failed one is the trace of what overrode that presence — drink, distraction, policy, fear. The subject doesn't matter. Craft doesn't even need to be masterful. What matters is: who was there when the mark was made. That is the register I judge by — the one the office keeps failing. The donkey is fine. Be present when you paint it.